Noam Pikelny and Stuart Duncan are arguably two of the greatest players to ever pick up their respective instruments. Pikelny is, day in and day out, pushing the boundaries of the five-string banjo both on his solo records and with the Punch Brothers. Meanwhile, Duncan is the world-renowned fiddler who has played on innumerable country records and even with Yo-Yo Ma (The Goat Rodeo Sessions).
When he was 25, musician Chris Funk left the Midwest for Portland, Oregon. Why? “I knew John Fahey lived in Oregon, and that was a big draw for me. And I knew Bill Frisell lived here [in Seattle]. They’re two of my idols.” As he tells us in this podcast, shortly after relocating to Oregon, he’d meet Colin Meloy and, soon thereafter, become a core member of the Decemberists. In 2007, Funk and the Decemberists’ Nate Query, Jenny Conlee and John Moen decided to form their own bluegrass-inspired offshoot band, Black Prairie. Black Prairie recently released their third studio record, Fortune (Sugar Hill).